For the case with the heading “Book, a Unity Tool” I will be discussing about the freedom of speech to the public and their cultural context behind it. This case is mainly talking about the literature written by the national laureate Abdullah Hussain with the title of ‘Interlok’ were being banned in Malaysia, because the book was found to contained an ugly word which roused strong emotions by certain groups. In addition, the words that founded in the book is considered as a derogatory term by the Indian Community and it could incite racial tensions if it is being used in the local schools stated by Melody Woon (2011). She also says that ‘Interlok’ is a book that is portraying the life of the Malaysian community during that era. Whereas, the literature textbook do contained lots of moral values which are relevant in our daily lives, such as Malaysian do help one another regardless of races, by respecting the elders, being appreciative and thankful to others, and have positive thinking. Below is a link to the whole story for further understanding.
To my opinion on this issue, I believe that there are freedom of speech and expression, which public has the rights to freely express their experience in their way as long as no one is being hurt by the outcome of it. In fact, the author of this literature Abdullah Hussain is just expressing his experience that he has gone through. Moreover, freedom of speech could also improve the country by gathering the public’s opinion and applied it to the development of the country regardless of education or society.
According to Dr. Abdul Aziz Bari (n.d) stated that under the Art.10 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights which was drawn up in 1951 has a quote saying that “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive as well as pass on information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” In addition, the right to freedom of expression are not just merely applied to ‘information’ or ‘ideas’ that are favorably received, but also to those that got offended, shock or disturb the state” by Dr. Abdul Aziz Bari (n.d).
Whereas, Walsh (2006) said that cultural context will affect someone’s interpretation method from their previous, cultural, general, specific, and linguistic knowledge. In addition, levels of meaning are depending on the types of pictures, texts, language that we use and this is related to the reader’s background knowledge by Walsh (2006).
Hence, it is right for us to express our experiences or opinions in our way by not hurting others. In contrast, the editors, authors, and the publisher are encourage to filter their information according to the culture of target audience before the information are published in the medium to avoid any misunderstanding or offense to the societal.
References:
- Dr. Abdul Aziz Bari n.d , Freedom of Speech and Expression in Malaysia After Forty Years, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://anwarite.tripod.com/freespeech.htm>
- knol.google.com 2008, FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN MALAYSIA, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://knol.google.com/k/freedom-of-speech-in-malaysia#>
- Melody Woon 2011, Book, a unity tool, online, viewed 8th June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2011/3/13/education/8216396&sec=education>
- Walsh, M. 2006, “ ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pg. 24-37.
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